The Alabama Retail Association says spending money at businesses in your community creates a powerful ripple effect and returns the most to your local economy.

“The Shop Alabama message is really about strengthening your local economy, it’s about supporting your friends and neighbors who own businesses here, and it is about investing in the vibrancy of your city,” Warnke said.

Retail, including food and drink establishments, supports one in four jobs in Alabama and brings in $19 billion, placing retail in the state’s top four highest producing industries outside of government.

We can all be a part of the movement to support local businesses. Just use the hashtag #ShopAlabama on social media when you post about doing your shopping at a locally-owned business.

According to the Alabama Retail Association, the average shopper plans to spend an average of $935 during the holiday shopping season this year.

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

Officials reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s who were hospitalized with injuries that didn't appear to be life-threatening.

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

Officials reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s who were hospitalized with injuries that didn't appear to be life-threatening.

(Marvel Studios/Disney via AP, File). FILE - This file image released by Disney and Marvel Studios' shows Chadwick Boseman in a scene from "Black Panther." “Black Panther” has become the first film since 2000’s “Avatar” to top the weekend box office fi...

"Black Panther" has become the first film since 2000's "Avatar" to top the weekend box office five straight weekends.More >>

"Black Panther" has become the first film since 2000's "Avatar" to top the weekend box office five straight weekends.More >>